board up

English

A boarded up pub in London

Verb

board up (third-person singular simple present boards up, present participle boarding up, simple past and past participle boarded up)

1. (transitive) To block doors or windows with boards, either to prevent access or as protection from storms, etc.
   • 1941 May, J. Ronald Hayton, “The Chattenden & Upnor Narrow-Gauge Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 208:

     The metals from Upnor to the boarded-up Tankfield signal box (by a gateless level crossing) were very rarely used.

   • 2019, Robert Eggers, Max Eggers, The Lighthouse (motion picture), spoken by Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe):

     Don’t be so darn foolish. It’s the calm afore the storm, Winslow. She were a gentle westerly wind yer cursin’. Only feels roughly ‘cause you don’t know nothin’ bout nothin’ and there ain’t no trees on this here rock like your Hudson Bay bush. Nor’Easterly wind’ll come soon a-blowin’ like Gabriel’s horn. Best board up them signal house winders.

Translations

to block doors or windows with boards

• Dutch: dichttimmeren (nl)
• French: barricader (fr), condamner (fr)
• German: mit Brettern verrammeln, mit Brettern vernageln
• Polish: zabijać (pl) impf, zabić (pl) pf
• Portuguese: fechar com tábuas